Morley Mark Tremonti Wah Pedal GuitarPlayback Wallimann Contest

Hi all,
Another day of happiness for me. I think these things I am doing haven't been done before in India, definitely not a small town kid (kid, who're you kidding!!) like me. I have managed to make it to the final list for another worldwide guitar contest. Like the last time, I didn't win, but I am getting closer to the prize.

You might be wondering what this contest is all about. Well, it's quite simple really. They had asked the participants to choose one out of a collection of backing tracks. What are backing tracks.. well they are songs without the main guitar parts. So you can fill that space up. There were a lot of backing tracks to choose from, and I went with one that I thought would challenge me. No point going in for the track where everybody knows what to do, there were so many entries on similar backing tracks, had to do something to be different from the rest from the very outset.

So I picked up this really difficult funk/big band backing track in the style of James Brown maybe. And I always associated funk with rhythm playing, but to play a solo over it, and make it sound convincing. Very very difficult. Anyway, cut to the chase, I put in my entry and it made it to the final round of 18. So I am really happy. Unfortunately there was only 1 prize, so we can't know who came second or third.

The prize was the Mark Tremonti wah pedal. Mark Tremonti is the ex-Creed, Alterbridge guitar player. BTW, you guys should watch this video on youtube, and read the comments in there by the other participants. You'll see the respect that I manage to gain on a worldwide basis, but of course, not many people know about that in India. It is a little weird, I am doing things that no one has done before, and nobody who is anybody, knows about it, or gives a shit. Funny world and funnier line of work I have chosen.

Anyway, if you have read this much of the post you might as well watch it. And please don't forget, the Indie Aid for Japan album, please help the victims by buying the album. It is only $6, Rs. 266. Think about it.

Take care

Of a time in the past!

Hi all,
This post has nothing to do with music, and it's been a while since I have written something of the sort. Well, I have been reading the Mahabharat of late. All those who are close to me know that I have a fascination for the book. I have read several versions of the epic depending upon the amount of abridgment offered. But for the first time ever, I am attempting to read the complete Mahabharat, translated directly from Sanskrit (by Kisari Mohan Ganguli all the way back in 1896, close to 4000 pages), word for word. Since it is written in somewhat old English, it is a trifle difficult to follow language wise at times, and is very difficult to follow as per content throughout.
But it is an amazing read, I am still in the nascent stages, but there are a few things that I have gathered without a doubt. Now there is a thing which is written in the book, which says, if you read this book with the spirit of belief, you shall benefit from reading it. If you read it with the spirit of fault-finding, then you shan't benefit from it. Having read a fair bit of The Holy Bible, I see this as a recurrent theme in books which are somehow related to Dharma( religion) in whichever way. I always thought it to be a really good marketing ploy, I mean you have to believe in it to benefit from it. But it is much simpler than that.
These books are telling us the tales of extraordinary human beings, people whose great power was on display on account of their extraordinary deeds. People will find it hard to believe if they don't see it in front of their eyes. There will be doubt, but therein lies the choice. If you believe in that man, then you believe in his deeds, and are uplifted by the knowledge that a common man like you and me could be capable of such greatness. If you choose to not believe in it, then you simply scoff at it, and turn your back on it. I chose to believe, and personally, it is one of my better decisions.
Reading about society as it was prevalent then, one thing jumps out very clearly. Their society is far superior than ours, having a far higher moral standard and standard of living as well. There was no crime in those kingdoms,barely 50 years before the Pandavs and Kauravs were born. No crime, not because of a very good law and order system, but because nobody needed to commit a crime, they were that content with their place in life, and with what life gave them in return. To me it seems like they were all part of a giant machine, and they knew it. They knew that they were cogs of a wheel that contributed to something much larger than themselves. If they could continue being a part of this supremely well-oiled machine, then they would reap all the benefits that come from living in a Utopian society.
I'd like to give a couple of examples, and I'll talk about the ones which caught my eye the most. In this day and age, where all people are concerned about is making a quick buck, and then some more, there is hardly any great amount of integrity towards a greater purpose in life. Everybody has to struggle a great deal just to get by, just to be able to earn enough to keep the family moving, and nobody is different. The people who have a lot of money, have a lot of power, have the power to take some extra money off of the poor who don't have enough in the first place. Even though you don't need the money, you take it.. why?? Because you can!!!
Compare this to that period. There was a strict caste system in place and every caste had their specific duties. Brahman, priests, people who devoted their lives searching for the greatest truth, and if they were to find it, to help everybody else in society partake of it. Kshatriya, warriors, leaders of the people and defenders of the land. If they didn't do their job right, then who'd lead the people, then who'd keep the hermitage of the Brahman safe and allow him to carry on with all of his studies in peace. Vaishya, traders, whose job was to earn profit in the most honest way possible, to make sure that the kingdom stayed wealthy. Shudra, the lower caste, assigned to perform the menial tasks that the other castes wouldn't perform. The caste system has been abolished from common senses now, but that is because it was violated by the people, used as a pretext for killing another man.
That wasn't the case with the society of old. Think about it, a Brahman could never earn wealth in his life, it was against his teachings, he was supposed to beg for alms and food. So in a kingdom where the Kshatriya and Vaishya do their duty correctly, he should never have to go hungry, and in his gratitude, he could make sure that the blessings of the gods were showered upon his benefactors. The Vaishya wouldn't have to worry about the security of his crops, cattle etc. because the Ksahtriya would take care of it, and about the blessings of the gods because the Brahman would take care of it. And you can see how this goes, everybody was the part of a much greater chain, and all they had to do was perform the assigned task to the best of their ability and the entire thing would run smoothly. And judging by the quality of life that they led, I think the system they followed had way more merit than demerit.
Now some of you might be saying, there were fewer people then than there are now, so there was more to go around. Which brings me to my second example, that most debated of all subjects, sex. Such is the mindset now that an average man thinks about sex once every 8 seconds! That's a scary figure. Humans are also animals, and if you look at any animal, they mate only during the season of mating, not at every drop of a hat because they felt like it, or because the weather was good, or because that's what they do for a living.
Again, in that time 50 years before the birth of the Pandavs and the Kauravs, it is actually written in The Mahabharat, that there would be no birth of children outside of the proper time, the men and women would mate only during season or they wouldn't. It was an act of procreation, not recreation. And that was written in a paragraph which stated that everything took place in it's proper time, with it's proper weightage. It was said that the trader, even though his job was to earn a profit, could not be greedy. If the bull who carried his yolk looked lean, then he wouldn't force it to carry the yolk, but would instead fatten him up till he was able to carry the yolk. If a calf was nursing on the cow's milk, then they wouldn't milk that cow, since the calf would then get lesser to feed on. If they had the prospect of extra produce, they wouldn't take it, since they already had enough, and didn't want to tempt the gods by trying to take advantage of the bounties thus provided.
So I come back to the differences in the then and now, and the total change in mindset that has occurred over the course of thousands of years. I am not writing all this to start a war of words, I am writing this almost as general knowledge for those who read it, as a different prospective to life, as a look back to how our very ancestors lived, and why it was a happier time, and why we were the leaders of the world.
I have of course decided to read The Mahabharat and there is a mine of information in that epic, will write about a few more of those things in the future.
Take care